But enough of my rancor. More reasoned, respected people like Jason Falls and David Wescott had some good points as well.

Jason commented on my blog:

“Robert is guilty of one thing – generalizing. Does he get a lot of bad pitches? Yep. So do I (probably not as many, I’m sure). Do a lot of PR folks suck these days? Yeah. Does the industry need a time out to revamp itself? Yes. But does someone like Scoble need to say, “PR SUCKS” as if all PR does? Hell no.”

Fair enough. David Wescott noted:

“I’m coming to realize there’s something worse than believing you’re a big deal by reading your press clippings – it’s believing you’re a big deal by looking at the number of followers you have on twitter. I’m not saying that’s where Scoble is, but comments like that don’t exactly convince me otherwise.”

A week into this, my thoughts have turned somewhat inward – meaning to those of us who do public relations and social media for a living and ask the “Scobelistic Question”: Do we suck?

Yes and no.

Aside from acting self-absorbed, Scoble whined about a mere sliver of public relations – pitching – and said that the whole industry is “lame.” And that comment is, well, lame. But more importantly, are there people who make bad pitches? Absolutely.

Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, both of whom I consider “A-Listers” and produce their excellent “For Immediate Release” podcast (and who first brought this topic to my attention), stated that they both get lots of bad pitches via email.

Time for a little self-examination.

I no longer work for a public relations agency, but was in the business for about 15 years and began, as most young bucks do – by pitching people who did not necessarily want to be pitched. And got hung up on a lot. So the other night in my class at Georgetown, I asked my students what was preventing them from creating the “magical experiences” that Scoble seems to demand with his free meals. What I heard back was pretty instructive – and confirmed, from my small focus group, what I had long believed prevents people from innovating more:

Billing pressure. When you work for an agency, your job is to bill as much as you can, and quite often, falling back on old ways is the best way to make your hours. Brutal, but I believe it to be true.

Clients are in love with statistics. Many clients would rather hear “we pitched 2,000 bloggers,” (spam, of course), than “we did our research, waited and make 10 carefully crafted pitches to 10 leading bloggers.” 2,000 versus 10? Please.

Clients or supervisors who don’t “get” social media are reluctant to green light innovation. The “young bucks” generation in public relations agencies have a hard time selling concepts that are new and people don’t yet understand.

The pressure. The higher you go in agencies, the more pressure you have to bill hours, supervise people, develop businesses and further existing client relationships. “Creating magic” takes some serious time – and thinking.

Bottom line? I think that Scoble is self-absorbed, but has clearly earned his media spotlight. And the public relations industry does indeed churn out some really bad pitches. But we don’t suck.

Is it worth painting the entire industry as “dead” and “lame?” Not unless you have no idea what you are talking about.